Re:Poor writing, not specialized concepts, drives difficulty...
by Joker_vD on Monday September 19, 2022 @03:56AM
(#32895532)
The (personally) funny thing about the 2nd amendment is that since I am not a native English speaker, its syntax looks broken to me. Without "since" or "because" at the beginning it reads either as a non sequitur or as a "driving by the gas station, my hat flew off" kind of sentence: the subject suddenly changes midway through and (in my native language) it's a hallmark of non-literate speech which one would really, really like to not have in an important legal document.
Re:Poor writing, not specialized concepts, drives difficulty...
by comex on Monday September 19, 2022 @04:32AM
(#32895759)
For the record, the extra commas after “Militia” and “Arms” would be considered incorrect by modern standards, though the sentence would otherwise be fine (aside from capitalization).
"A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed"
Seems nice and straightforwards, right? Trouble is, that's just one of many versions. Different states ratified slightly different versions of the Second Amendment, the main difference being the presence of absence of different commas. For example, see this version from the National Archives [0]
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"
[0] https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transc...